world, i am an aunt

I am an aunt. On Thursday, September 24, my little little brother Chris and his lovely wife Esther had their first child. Little little brother you ask? Well, yes. I have two younger brothers and he is the younger of the two, so he is little little brother. The fact that he is by far the tallest of the three siblings just makes me smile EVERY time I say it.

Since we found out Esther was pregnant 8 months ago, I have been saying, “The kids are having kids.” You see, Chris and Esther knew what they wanted and got married 2.75 years ago. Crazy. Insane. At 21 & 22 years of age they knew what they wanted and were willing to commit to it. COMMIT – a shocking word in this day and age. And so I have jokingly called them the kids ever since. For the past 8 months Esther’s belly has grown and somehow it kind-of-maybe seemed real that there was about to be another addition to the Crane family, but it was surreal.

On Thursday surreal became real when Liam Hussein arrived 2.5 weeks early at a healthy 6 lbs 13 oz. He is going to be the only tall skinny white kid with Irish and Arab names in any school he attends (middle name after the late King Hussein of Jordan). The labor was without drugs, feeding is breast milk, and the diapers cloth. Yep, the kids are having kids. I am so proud of them and maybe, just maybe, when I grow up I can be like them.